Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Where to Begin? The Communist Party USA and The Present Crisis

At the present moment, the revolutionary movement of the proletariat is confronted with historic challenges and obstacles which boldly stand in the way of the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large in the interests of working and oppressed people. The reality at hand is the ongoing onslaught that the capitalists are forcing down the throats of working people by means of their ruthless austerity regimes and imperialist plunders. By now, no one can hide the fact that even those in the imperialist First World are suffering from the current crisis of capitalism. While the ruling classes of the West are crucifying Libyans in the name of freedom and democracy, and while the Syrian people, bloodied and exhausted, are struggling to resist imperialist invasion and a brutal civil war engineered and perpetuated by the West, working people of America are being stimulated, and beginning to wake up to the sights around them and realize the gravity of the situation. Witnessing the fury of cuts, austerity, and encroachments on democratic rights at home, and at the same time looking on at the terroristic wars being waged by their government throughout the world, American working people are showing signs of an increasingly awakened class consciousness in response to the crisis of the global capitalist-imperialist system. The achievement of a socialist consciousness, however, is still a complex and dynamic work in progress, and a protracted one at that.

As has been admitted, considerable challenges and obstacles litter the road to such a culmination. A capitalist crisis brings not only a responsive class consciousness or political resurgence of proletarian revolution, but also heightened offensives launched with the aim of sustaining the capitalist system regardless of the suffering by the masses of people entailed. The ruling class, split or divided, is fundamentally united by its “better dead than red” mentality, and, driven by this, is determined to fight to the death before surrendering state power to any revolutionary forces.

At such a time, and considering such realities, the fundamental question of the revolutionary Marxist agenda is the means by which the American proletariat can be organized, educated, and agitated to the point of realizing and being capable of successfully enacting the necessity of overthrowing capitalism. This is not only a question of strategy and means that has been discussed many a time around the tables of communists or in the essays and articles of radicals, but also a crucial problem concerning the very livelihood of the revolutionary movement and those involved. It must be borne in mind that, regardless of what phrasemongering may be uttered by various comrades here and there, we are living in a time of definite systemic crisis and radical rupture of capitalism, and our actions and orientation must be suited accordingly to this state of conditions. It is simply unpardonable to ignore or be “innocent” of seeing the conditions that we are facing, the statistics and facts of which can be found presented anywhere, even in the pages of the bourgeois press.

Unfortunately, however, there are comrades who, although they may recognize the realities of capitalism at hand, shut their eyes to the realities of socialism and revolution which are inseparable from the problems of capitalism and their solution. This tendency is distinguished by its proposal of petty reformist and revisionist distortions in place of genuinely radical theory and practice, and one of the gravest aspects of this tendency is its very position within the working class movement.

There is no use in hiding the fact that the greatest representatives of the reformist and revisionist tendency within the ranks of the proletarian movement are those who constitute the present leadership of the Communist Party USA, i.e., Sam Webb and co. This group, this organized tendency, is responsible for proudly and unabashedly asserting and suggesting numerous theses concerning the path and means by which to deal with the current situation of capitalism which are entirely irreconcilable with Marxism, proletarian revolution, and even the realities of capitalism. As Comrade Mark Anderson has pointed out in his article The Old Bug of Right Opportunism Returns, these include, but are not limited to the following:

“The capitalist system is not moribund, as Lenin said, but is relatively strong. It is not in general crisis. Therefore, the U.S. party’s strategy should be solely to win attainable reforms within the system rather than advocate capitalism’s revolutionary replacement with socialism.”

“Anti-monopoly strategy, let alone anti-capitalist propaganda, is too advanced for this stage of struggle, and the main focus should instead be on rebuffing the most extreme right and the Republican Party.”

“Historically, socialism has shown itself to be unable to solve economic and social problems. Central planning is a failure; a market-oriented economy is the way to go. It’s not even clear anymore what socialism is.”

“The class struggle has ceased to be the central pivot around which all questions revolve.”

“Racism and national oppression are gradually receding. It is no longer necessary to aggressively push for affirmative action.”

“Issues of discrimination, anti-Semitism, and the struggle for the full equality of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, Asian-Pacific and Arab Americans, LGBT, women, and youth no longer requires special attention. Party Commissions and special demands on these questions are unnecessary.”

“The term “U.S. imperialism” is too simplistic. The U.S. government, especially under President Obama, can play a positive and humanitarian role in world politics. For this reason it is permissible for the U.S. military and NATO forces to occupy other nations like Iraq and Afghanistan, impose “democratic” reforms, and secure neoliberal economic advantages. Peace and solidarity work is therefore not as important as it once was.”

“Electoral politics should be limited to work within the Democratic Party. Any attempt to go outside the two-party system is sectarian and futile. Running candidates on the Communist Party ticket is especially narrow and self-defeating.”

“The CPUSA is bogged down by dogmatism, sectarianism and rigidity. Many of the stock slanders of the Party are indeed justified. It may not survive unless it abandons its outdated dogmas, including the dogma that it should play a leading, vanguard role.”

“The Party should emulate social democracy and seek to merge with the broad left. The “Communist plus” should be given a quiet burial, and Marxist-Leninist education and literature (including a printed news paper) are relatively unimportant. Strong party organization is no longer necessary.”

These notions, although perpetrated and implied in nearly every article or speech that the leadership puts forward, have yet to be presented in more of a concentrated and straightforward expression than in Sam Webb’s A Party of Socialism in the 21st Century: What It Looks Like, What It Says, and What It Does. An unabashed rejection and condemnation of Marxism-Leninism, a manifesto for reformism and wholesale revisionism, and, above all, the guiding orientation of the Communist Party USA’s present leadership and thus Party policy, Webb’s essay is an unavoidable and undeniably significant document. The document is even further significant upon realizing its context in present conditions.

At such a time of glaringly evident and deep crisis of the global capitalist system, in the face of the looming environmental disaster facing humanity, and in view of US imperialism’s continued, vicious and violent onslaught against the peoples of the global south – one would think that at such a time, the leadership of the Communist Party USA would shoulder its revolutionary rifle and recognize its historic mission to organize the working class for revolutionary resistance and struggle against the world capitalist-imperialist offensive. Sam Webb, however, has proven that a very different view is at large within the Party’s ranks, and, most unfortunately, among its leading figures. Indeed, few pronouncements have so shocked the American Left as has Sam Webb’s A Party of Socialism in the 21st Century: What It Looks Like, What It Says, and What It Does.

In antagonism to Webb’s theses and proposed orientation, however, there exists a revolutionary alternative which, rather than striving to cope with, accomodate, and appease the more “progressive” spectrums of the capitalist-imperialist ruling class, believes in the pivotal conclusions reached by Marx and Lenin that have made Marxism-Leninism the scientifically deduced theory and practice of the emancipation of the world’s exploited and oppressed people that has accumulated the blood, sweat, tears, triumphs and tribulations, and successes and failures of more than a hundred years of struggle.

This tendency, which very much may be the Bolshevik tendency of today (as opposed to the Menshevik tendency of Webb and co.), resolves that, in view of the existing conditions, we must not abandon but instead hold high the banner of Marxism-Leninism, and, rather than ditch truly revolutionary politics, embrace them. The historic dilemma facing communists at the present juncture of history is one of either letting American capitalism continue its history, or, alternatively, beginning the history of American socialism. As has been said, the fundamental question of the revolutionary Marxist agenda is the means by which the American proletariat can be organized, educated, and agitated to the point of realizing and being capable of successfully enacting the necessity of transforming bourgeois society and thus opening the road for such a socialist America. The way forward is clear: we communists must organize ourselves as the vanguard of working people and the revolution, we must develop a Party capable of educating, organizing, agitating, and leading working people and their allies in the collective struggle for socialism.

Presently, we are playing two ends against a middle in that we, in line with Party policy, are responsible for developing and maintaining a mass base of support by being activists in the struggle against the problems of capitalism, but at the same time we are allying with a “section” of the capitalists in power, the “progressive” Democrats, because they supposedly constitute a buffer against the forces of ultra-reaction, i.e., the far Right, and serve as a popular force in the interests of the “people” and “inclusive democracy”, as Sam Webb would put it. By perpetrating such a policy, however, communists the country over are fulfilling a self-destructive prophecy of dooming the proletarian movement under the guise of “reinvigorating” or “broadening” it. Under the present line, we are responsible for rallying the masses of people around the struggle against capitalism by means of joining and tail-ending forces which objectively bolster and support the capitalist system. The incongruity is glaringly evident. The lack of materialist class analysis is inexcusable.

Rather than miseducating and misleading people in struggle in this manner, however, the Communist Party USA must be tasked with handling its historic mission of organizing the forces of revolution against those of reaction, with shouldering its task of educating, agitating, organizing, and leading working people against the reactionary forces of capitalism, whether or not they label themselves Democrat, or Republican, or Libertarian, etc.

A revolution is on the agenda when people can no longer go on living in the old way. Such a horizon is extremely close in view. We cannot pretend to know what exact day the people will be compelled to take to the streets and overthrow the current order, nor can we pretend to know the exact day on which the integuments of capitalism will burst asunder and revolution will be the only open door for humanity. What communists, what the Communist Party USA, should do, can do, and must do, however, is prepare cadres, educate, organize, and agitate working people, and orient its work towards facing its historic mission of leading the American people in casting capitalism to the dustbin of history, and opening up, on the basis of socialism, prospects for humanity’s sustainable and just development.

What is to be done? Where to begin?

The Communist Party USA, as our Party of working and oppressed people, must be first and foremost revolutionized in its theory and practice.

As Lenin so presciently pointed out: “In its struggle for power the proletariat has no other weapon but organization. Disunited by the rule of anarchic competition in the bourgeois world, ground down by forced labor for capital, constantly thrust back to the “lower depths” of utter destitution, savagery, and degeneration, the proletariat can become an invincible force only through its ideological unification on the principles of Marxism being reinforced by the material unity of organization, which welds millions of toilers into an army of the working class.” Neither the senile rule of the American imperialists nor the senescent rule of international capital will be able to withstand this army. The Communist Party USA must render itself such an organization which has the theoretical foresight, fighting capacity, and determination by which to wield millions of American workers into an army committed to overthrowing capitalism and bringing fruition to the adage that has been inscribed on the Party’s banners for decades: “Peace, democracy, equality, socialism!” To this end, establishing the very organizational and ideological integrity which the Party currently lacks is an imperative matter.

Such is the guiding principle by which to begin to orient the struggle against the retrograde trends in the Party and begin to push forward the struggle for the emancipation of working and oppressed people in the United States of America. It us up to communists around the country to realize these crucial realities of theory and practice, and contribute their lot to working out concrete methods and means of building a Communist Party which is not just interested in interpreting the world, but effectively changing it. Limiting ourselves as we currently are to tail-ending the Democratic Party, the trade unions, “progressive” politics, and so on is systematically sabotaging and impeding the development of what has rang essential since the days of the Communist Manifesto: “They [communists] openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.” Working and oppressed people of all countries, unite!

Signed: Comrades J. Arnoldski, John Mackoviak, Analise Spencer, Jim Byrne, and E.C. Tolentino of the Tucson Club of the CPUSA

21 comments:

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Comrade:CPUSA cannot be saved because it is dead. Only dummies believes that once you are dead, a person or an organization can be "resuscitated." CPUSA was bought by the capitalist Democratic Party. CPUSA is now busy promoting the capitalism of Barack Obama, an incompetent and bad member of the black race. Sam Webb is making a very good living right now. He is no longer a communist. He is a capitalist now. His number one priority is to promote the sectarianism of the Democratic Party, fighting for the "rights" of blacks, homosexuals and lesbians.The working class has ceased to exist for Sam Webb.

In the USA, what the Democratic Party and the Republican Party were (stood for) during the Civil War are very different... some may say even opposite to what they are now. Saying the CPUSA is dead are strong words; perhaps comatose. And coma patients may indeed awaken. I hear what you're saying though, and perhaps it is time to create a new collection of comrades and reenergize what it means to be a communist. I think Sam is trying to go-with-the-flow... right or wrong. I tend to agree with you, though; allowing the capitalists and bourgeois lifestyle to ozz into the CPUSA needs to be addressed. Perhaps it is no longer a time to go with that flow, but rather clean up the name of what communism actually is. Too many Americans cannot even explain what it means... only that it is that "bad thing" as their parents and school taught them. Education and organization is the key.

A revolution is on the agenda when people can no longer go on living in the old way. ---> This is not entirely true. A revolution is on the agenda when those from below can no longer go on living (being ruled) in the old way, AND when those from above can no longer go on ruling the old way.

Where have you been for the last 30 years - under a rock?! China is Communists in name only and in the level of oppression it still metes out to it's population. Maybe you haven't noticed that China has turned to capitalism in order to keep it's population from starving to death. BTW - if you are as ignorant about that then here is another fact you may be ignorant about: Capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than any other system in world history.

Aren't any of you people embarrassed that the idiot ideology that you believe in and is a failure in every country where it has been implemented (China is Communist in name only since they've turned to capitalism as a solution to their starving populace) and is really nothing more than a massive crime organization designed to control those who have a fear of freedom, has caused the death of over 100 million people. Besides being laughable aren't you even embarrassed to be such gullible fools?

Nope. The number one cause of death is by a militant corporate run government NOT controlled and regulated the The People but rather by an autocracy, like in the US, and the countless sufferings and inhumanity being made into a profitable source of exploitation by capitalism! You should check into anarchist-communism for the solution.

PART ONE OF TWO: The question is not are we ashamed of wanting true democratic equality and the unity of the human race with such dedication and conviction. That answer is obviously no, we are not. The question you should be asking yourself is; are "YOU PEOPLE" not embarrassed by the repeated and observable failure of capitalism? It has taken freedom away from the masses to control their own destiny, which is the working class... the engine of ALL economies, and allowed a very small and "elite" lazy group of families to control EVERYTHING… and nothing works right. If the CEO of the company which I work, who has never done any of the jobs over which he rules or any manual labor in his life for that matter, had to do my job, he’d probably cry and quit in the first hour. Would you want a military general based on his family name or bank account yet has never fought in a single battle to rule over your whole army? How well would that work out? Would you want a judge who has never been a lawyer to create and uphold laws based solely on his privileged last name or a thick wallet? How does the idea of capitalism seem efficient to you? The bourgeoisie do not earn money… they make money, and they do it from OUR time and labor. Capitalism claims that the harder you work, the more you make. Well, you have to be asleep to believe in that American dream.The embarrassment you should acknowledge; the failure is that THERE IS NO MORE CAPITALISM. It has transformed itself (especially in the US) into a complete and total oligarchy, designed to maximize profits at the expense of her own people. They bribe, oh, I mean, they “donate” masses of money to their political puppets via corporations so to bend the law in accordance to their will. This is why nothing is in favor of the working people of the world. Capitalism is the real failure, unless you are already very, very, rich.Communism has not yet succeeded because humans are still working on perfection, however that is a road, not a destination, and also because it is constantly being tampered with by the bourgeoisie; Project Condor is a good example... one of many. The goal of unifying the human race is so easily given up on by people like you, and that is also why it fails. What if that was the spirit of the US? To give up when the first few rockets failed to bring us to the moon? Or how about when the first few attempts at curing polio failed? Has this become the rightwing spirit? Failure means you give up and never try again? Obviously, yes.

Capitalism has done more to raise people out of poverty than any system to date. Communism puts people in poverty as a lot of Americans are finding out. As an American I am witnessing what Socialism's Hope and Change looks like and it ain't pretty. Millions are descending into poverty as the middle class shrinks. Businesses are being taxed and regulated out of existence - which means less jobs for Americans. This isn't an anomaly of Socialism/Communism, but is actually the norm as the people found out in every country where it was/is tried. Read Frank Dikotter's The Tragedy of Liberation and how the Communists destroyed what was once a thriving, innovative, economic powerhouse of a country. As far as seeking perfection and total economic equality you are living in a fools paradise. Sure their is inequality, but it is an inequality between those who make and those who take. Also, you seem to forget that it was a capitalist society that sent us to the moon and that found the cure for polio.

One other thing I would like to add. You said, "Sure there is inequality, but it is an inequality between those who make and those who take." You say that like it is a good thing. We, the Working Class make, and they, the lazy rich take. How is that an acceptable thing? 1% of the population hordes 96% of the wealth yet contribute NOTHING to society, create nothing but wars, which we fight for them, and all manner of suffering for profits. I promise you that if there is suffering somewhere, that someone is profiting from it. This is what you fight for? They control the laws and are not only allowed, but are legally encourage to do things the rest of us would go to prison for, and people like you consider it money well earned. That is not earned; it is stolen, at best. How do you put greed on a pedestal as being the paragon of humanity? Is that what your Jesus would do? And you say we are the fools and bad people for wanting a better world!? Tell me one thing that they can do with their billions that we couldn't do with an equal amount or less through taxes. Think of the classes as being people, say one is you, the worker, and two others living together (representing the bourgeois middle class, and capitalist mega-rich). You go out and get chestnut seeds from the forest and collect fertilizer. Then you toil the fields, plant the seeds, tend to the chestnut crops, harvest them, carry them into the house, and cook them in the fireplace. Then you pull them from the fire and set them into a pile, a job well done. Then one person takes them (bourgeois) and keeps a handful. That person then hands the rest of the pile to a man who is just sitting in his comfy chair (mega-rich) hoarding everything else that you had labored for. This man then gives you back 2 or 3 chestnuts... which are just barely enough to keep you from starving to death so you can continue laboring for them. Does that really make more sense to you? Who deserves those chestnuts? Saying that this is simply a little "unfair" is like saying there is a little bit of snow in Antarctica.

Capitalism has proven that it does NOT bring people out of poverty, but puts them there! The failure of capitalism you have witnessed began with the handing of power to the corporations in this autocracy. The privatization of the US gave a handful of ultra-wealth (especially in the 80's) sweetheart deals via low taxes and loopholes and the removal of jobs by the bourgeoisie so no one can afford anything, all to increase their filthy profits yet even more. There is not nearly enough socialism in the country to blame socialists, who have little to no power, for your mess. In order to ensure that workers have no power, high unemployment is an imperative. Unemployment = poverty. They need an army of unemployed Working Class who are desperate to snatch up any jobs that happen to be available. This way we don't ask for better work conditions or reasonable pay for our labor because someone even poorer is always eager to take their place. Socialist countries have much lower unemployment and homelessness for a reason (as well as crime, poverty = crime). In some places a job and housing will be provided if not already available. It made me laugh out loud when you said that capitalism has done ANYTHING to raise people out of poverty. It in fact depends on poverty by those in control, ironic since the Working Class is the sole reason their “bosses” are able to mass their hordes of wealth. Capitalism can't have a nation of only bourgeoisie and they know it. They don’t want the competition anyway. Would you? The Working Class must make up the majority and be kept poor and desperate so they will be grateful for whatever they can get. Throw a fat man with hordes of food a simple cracker and he won't care. Throw a starving man a cracker and he is happy to get whatever he can.And we are not LIVING in a "fools paradise". We are LIVING in capitalism; a cruel system without justice or equality, where suffering is profit and our taxes go into the pockets of the already rich instead of social programs to help The Whole. All of you house-slaves bow down to them in hopes of getting their trickled down crumbs and the “fool’s paradise” of someday reaching their rich, lazy status. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN FOR YOU! NEVER! We communists are STRIVING TOWARDS A GOAL, not living in a dream, where humanity means to be humane. Are these the goals of bourgeois wannabe’s like yourself or your masters? No? Then if you have your way, humanity shall always mean cruelty! What goal do you capitalists strive for besides hoarding unnecessary amounts of wealth and self-gratification?BTW: THE CURE FOR POLIO was discovered by Jonas Salk, who rejected the capitalistic idea of profit for his work by refusing the copyright, saying that the cure belonged to the world. That is a communistic ideal, NOT a capitalistic one! ALSO, the funding used to cure polio was collected because the government asked that every American send one dollar each to the cause. ALL of the funding was done this way, which is communism/socialism. NO capitalism was used! IT IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF HOW WELL COMMUNISM WORKS, so thank you for that fine example and making our point for us! FYI: Many cures for many diseases have been discovered and abandoned by capitalist corporations do to it cutting into their precious profit margin. This is your goal for humanity, and you call us fools!?And the moon was reached with money that could as easily be produced by taxes. Oh wait, TAXES IS WHAT WAS USED TO FUND THE SPACE PROGRAM WHICH BROUGHT US TO THE MOON, which is socialism and had nothing to do with capitalism! Thank you for that fine example as well. Leave the delusions behind you! Proudly accept that you are Working Class and help us to ascend into a real democracy, where human suffering is unacceptable instead of profitable!

PART TWO OF TWO: The failure of capitalism means many suffer for a few to live in total luxury. It is no longer (if it ever was) about working your way to success. How many janitors or mailroom clerks have worked their way up to becoming CEO's of the corporation in which they work? Now, how many were already born into wealth and educated by that same wealth to get where they are, rather than work their way to “the top”? And they did it at the expense of the workers, exploiting and stripping them of their rights and power. They would not even have a business if it were not for us. All CEO’s could not show up to “work” for a year and everything would be fine. If every worker didn’t show up to work for a year, and what would happen? Now, who is more important? CONTINUED:They are NOT philanthropists. They are tyrants… modern day kings, who may as well be called "the New Royal Families of the world". And YOU submit to them as a good little house slave would, hoping they thrown you an occasional scrape because you lack the courage to revolt, so you take what you can get. I have news for you; they shall NEVER let you play in their little clubhouse. It is small, elite, and you are NOT welcome. So accept that, and instead elevate YOUR class to its rightful place under the moral laws of democracy. Our forefathers fought against monarchies. "YOU PEOPLE" have fought to reassure that their struggle and revolutionary ideals were in vain.And if you are religious, I suggest you read this bible of yours and see how often your god and Jesus repeatedly command to feed and care for the poor, not suck the marrow from their slaving bones. Before it was altered by the bourgeoisie, the original motto of the US was: e pluribus Unum. Or, “out of many, One”. I can think of nothing more communist then that. So wake up. We shall never unify through separation. You should be embarrassed for your shortsightedness and lack of vision. As long as there are those who suffer, capitalism shall be there grinning from its vile profits. Ironically, there are also house slaves like you, who at the expense of their own people, allow and encourage the suffering of others to help them enjoy their massive takings. You submit to your masters and refuse to allow us to use the true scepter of power, which is our birthright. You keep us from controlling our own destiny. Stop brown-nosing the rich. If it were not for people like you, the power would be where it belongs; with “We the People”. As for us… we shall continue trying until we succeed.

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We need a vanguard Communist Party USA - one that rejects the Imperialist 2-party monopoly, stands on its own two feet and fights for the working class in honesty and integrity.We used to be that party, and we can be again. But first we must purge the cancer of revisionism and Browderism from our ranks, that would have us betray our fellow workers to the Imperialist ruling class for the chance to sit at the table with them. We must carve it out, and taking a cue from William Z Foster, save our party by expelling those that seek to poison it.